Labrador Letter – 2024 Recap

Dear Friends,

2024 was a great year for the Office of the Attorney General and I want to share some of the accomplishments we have delivered for the people of Idaho over the last year. Every day brings a new and interesting challenge, and the diversity and complexity of issues can be staggering. But regardless of the subject matter, defending the people and laws of Idaho unites everything we do, and is always our priority.

Nowhere is this priority more critical than in our Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit. ICAC investigates and prosecutes predators who sexually exploit children and create and distribute child pornography. Over this last year, our restructured ICAC Unit eliminated a 1300-tip backlog of potential crimes of sexual exploitation and child pornography. Now, these cases are getting triaged and evaluated within 24 hours for investigation. In 2024, our ICAC Unit averaged one arrest per week - more than has ever been done in the history of ICAC. Our convictions on many of these cases are getting maximum sentences as judges around the state are realizing the danger these predators are presenting to children everywhere. ICAC has built solid partnerships with law enforcement agencies in every corner of the state and works tirelessly to protect kids from those who exploit and abuse them.

2024 also saw our office defend women's sports and keeping women from having to compete against biological males. Our lawsuit to protect women's sports is waiting at the Supreme Court of the United States. I'm proud of our Boise State women's volleyball team for taking the principled stand to not compete against transgendered opponents. No woman in any sport, whether it's college volleyball or a middle school track team, should be forced to make the choice between their own safety or potentially losing the opportunity to participate in the sport they love. Girls and women athletes deserve our wholehearted support on this issue and our office will continue to fight for them.

Similarly, we have protected women and girls in Idaho by defending the nation's first statute to keep women and girls safe in bathrooms, locker rooms, and other places in schools with expectations of privacy. The Biden Administration twisted Title IX to include "gender identity" as a new classification for sexual discrimination in schools, which allowed biological males into those places. Title IX was designed to protect women's opportunities and access in educational facilities, not turn our grade-school bathrooms and locker rooms into a social experiment.

We have defended Idaho's pro-life statutes against relentless lawsuits from the Biden Administration and their national and local advocacy allies. We have kept Idaho's Abortion Trafficking law largely intact making it illegal to take a minor out of state for an abortion without parental consent. We've also defended Idaho's Defense of Life Act at the Supreme Court against the Biden Administration and pro-abortion advocates' attempts to twist federal law into a mandate to provide abortions. Our state laws protect the lives of mothers and their unborn children, and those laws need the very best defense our office can provide.

We have defended Idaho's Vulnerable Child Protection Act, winning a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows Idaho to continue to protect our kids by prohibiting sex-reassignment surgeries and puberty-blocking drugs for minors. Kids with gender dysphoria need love, support, and competent counseling, not irreversible surgeries and debunked treatments. As the narrative promoting these social experiments masquerading as medicine unravels, other states are looking to protect their children, and Idaho is leading the way.

We've pushed back relentlessly against the Lava Ridge Wind Project being forced on the Magic Valley by the BLM and out-of-state energy consortiums that would turn Idaho into a giant battery for California's electric car mandates and the Green New Deal. I was thrilled to see tremendous opposition to the Lava Ridge project, from groups across the political spectrum, from local farmers to conservation groups to our congressional delegation and everyone in between. It takes all of us working together to defend Idaho against this abuse of federal lands in our great state.

We've defended Idaho's election integrity laws which set the standard for secure identification when registering to vote. Our office delivered a victory at the Idaho Supreme Court in the Babe Vote case which threatened to undermine the election security demanded by the Legislature. We also fought against the Proposition 1 ranked-choice-voting initiative and their deceptive marketing. While our court fight did not go as hoped, I felt vindicated when Idaho citizens roundly rejected this initiative 69% to 31% and rejected the $5.5 million in out-of-state campaign money sent into Idaho to change our election process.

We defended Idaho's Open Meeting law with another Idaho Supreme Court victory overturning a district court decision that completely turned the objective standard for holding a public meeting on its head. The controversy started when the University of Idaho attempted to purchase the University of Phoenix for $680 million dollars without sufficient public notice or comment. I will continue to fight for transparency and openness for all of government's business and defend the people's right to be heard in public decisions.

One of the responsibilities of my office is to protect Idaho consumers. In 2024, we've won $81.3 million in settlements against companies that have harmed Idaho consumers with deceptive marketing practices and dangerous products, like tobacco, opioids, and other pharmaceuticals. This brings our two-year total of settlements since I've been in office to $161 million sent back to the general fund for schools, roads, and other legislative priorities. That's five times our annual office budget..

As 2024 ended, businesses across the country won a huge victory when a nationwide injunction was granted against the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The CTA required every business to disclose every person with a financial interest and turn it over to the federal government, and without protective measures in place for privacy and security. This is a massive violation of the principles of Federalism and even the district judge called it "quasi-Orwellian." For now, more than 36 million businesses across the nation have been protected against another intrusive government program. This was a great victory for the businesses and people of Idaho, and I was proud to join many other conservative attorneys general in filing an amicus brief supporting the litigation.

My office not only defends Idaho's laws, we also defend your freedoms when the Federal Government ignores the constitutional rights of Idahoans and all Americans. We led several successful lawsuits in 2024 to protect our borders, natural resources, and economic interests. One of these cases included a victory in a Texas federal court that stopped the Biden Administration's illegal plan for mass parole for illegal immigrants. Another victory blocked the Administration from giving illegal immigrants access to federal Obamacare benefits. Also, we won against the Administration's rule to change the federal minimum wage without the approval of Congress. If vigilance is the price for liberty, my office will always stand strong, ensuring your freedoms are not taken for granted.

As you can see, it's been a busy year for our office and my team of talented attorneys and staff, and I've loved the opportunity to defend Idaho's laws. Thank you for allowing me the privilege of serving as your Attorney General, giving me the responsibility to protect our people and our state's sovereignty. I hope 2025 will be just as productive and I look forward to all it will bring.

Happy New Year!

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